Ancestral Roofs

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Paying your own Way

Our dad was big on "paying your own way." Being a practical farmer, he dreaded debt, "paddled his own canoe" and was "beholden to no man."

I expect he would approve of the thought that popped into my mind as I enjoyed the tropical heat of Brighton last week.

I wandered up Young Street (toiled might be more precise, given the hazy sun broiling pedestrians to perfection), strolled through the grounds at Proctor House (she's having work done, good to see) and trickled slowly downhill via Kingsley and Sandford to Main Street to find a house on the western edge of town. And back. Via Lighthouse Books (more on that later) and all the shady trees I could find.

ogee arch garden trellis..'piano' at right

One gorgeous red brick home in particular drew my attention - starting with the shade and expanding to the luscious gardens. The sun-speckled front lawn was a feast for the senses with all kinds of needful garden art. The focus, which would bring a grin to the face of a Victorian butler, was the upright piano/water feature/music centre. Worth the drive to Brighton. The house was lovely, as an abode, but it's also the home of Special Effects Decorating. I recognized the sign, and was delighted later to reconnect on-line with the very creative and lovely style of Sheryl Delorme, who I met years ago, when her shop was in downtown Belleville.

Another fine old house on the other corner of Meade Street has been in my sights for some time. I've been admiring with considerable relief, the restoration of the Mansard roof with polychromatic tiles or shingles, and the repair and repainting of cornice brackets and porch gingerbread. Delightful spot.

Now it's the home of Paramdhan Kaur yoga studio and several other practitioners of healing arts. One could say that the worthy Victorian house has been healed as well.

Right next door, along Main Street, in a rambling frame Edwardian house is a Brighton institution, The Blue House, featuring home and garden gifts and original art.

I also admired the HQ of Brighton Massage Therapy and Footcare Clinic, who have revved up the their Greek Revival facade with white and pale yellow paint.

Old homes have long been re-purposed as B&B's and funeral homes, but I think I see a growing trend to repurpose interesting old houses into business venures. It seems to me that tourists and shoppers are drawn to businesses in heritage buildings, heritage districts. Even if they wouldn't know a pilaster from a pinochle, there's a charm, a presence, an experience in and around old buildings that the shiniest newest build just doesn't provide. Even this old house nut accepts that not every worthy heritage structure can be fully restored and run as a museum. Nor are there enough owners with the means to restore and retain yesterday's massive single family homes in private hands.

Some old houses, like the rest of us, have to pay their own way. Ask Alex Fida, visionary owner of the restored House of Falconer in Picton, who purchased an at-risk property, painstakingly restored it, and has now "monetized it" into a vibrant community arts hub.

Great Architecture quotes

"The sins of the Architect are permanent sins" Frank Lloyd Wright, 1914

"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." ~Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet (Posted in January on the ACO Acorn online)

"It is forbidden to disfigure external decorations on private buildings through modern additions and to spoil historic buildings in an important town out of avarice and the desire to make money." - Theodosius, Valentinianus, Arcadius (309 A.D.)

"It has been said that at its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future" - William Murtagh (1988)

"Preservationists are the only people in the world who are invariably confirmed in their wisdom after the fact". - John Kenneth Galbraith (1979)

"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines" - Frank Lloyd Wright

"Architecture is the art of how to waste space" - Philip Johnson

"Architecture is frozen music" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Photo Gallery

"Caught in passing"

Striker/Walmsley House 1868

Albert Street beauty

Fort William Collegiate Institute - "they don't make 'em like they used to"